I’ll give you all a brief synopsis of the story, followed by my thoughts, and my rating of the book.

*BEWARE OF SPOILERS*

Synopsis : The Dark is Rising was first published by Susan Cooper in 1973. Her Dark is Rising series has become a modern classic, and has gathered a cult following of those who love the genre (Arthurian Myth, fantasy, or Young Adults. Take your pick.) and is arguably her most well-known work to date. I’ve already reviewed the first book in the series in my first post. Over Sea, Under Stone was to The Dark is Rising as The Hobbit is to Fellowship of the Ring. The story is that of an 11 year old boy named Will Stanton who lives with his large family in the English countryside. Strange things begin to happen the day before his birthday; animals behaving oddly, strange people following him, and a fateful gift given to him by an unlikely friend. Then on the day of his 11th birthday his entire world is turned upside and changed forever when he finds out that he is the reincarnation of some long ago being of the Light, the good guys, who call themselves the Old Ones. Will is suddenly plunged into the age old battle of Dark vs. Light, Good vs. Evil and is struggling to learn how to use his newfound abilities to stay alive, protect his family, and save all of humanity from the Dark. Because the Dark is rising.

Review: As with the prequel, I was kind of disappointed with The Dark is Rising. I find this really surprising because I really admire Susan Cooper as a writer, I’m a huge fan of her other work. My favorite book of her’s is King of Shadows in which a young boy, who is part of a troupe of actors that travel around putting on Shakespeare, is carried back in time where he meets the most prolific writer of all time, The Bard of Avon, and becomes an actor under the great man. That book I would fully recommend to you all, it’s such a great book with lots of interesting historical bits. I just wish I could say the same of The Dark is Rising. Let’s start with the things I liked about it though. I liked the fact that the young hero wasn’t alone, he had many allies, and also the fact that he wasn’t a reluctant hero. He just accepted his destiny and took up the mantle with no questions (which was a double edged sword for me). I really like Ms. Cooper’s writing style, she paints such a beautiful and lyrical picture of the world and of her story. I also liked the concept of the book. I liked the potential that I saw in the story.

That said, let’s talk about what I didn’t like. Like I said, Will not being a reluctant hero kind of posed problems for me, even as I found it a refreshing change. I would expect of any young boy, presented with this terrifying and dangerous destiny and unimaginable powers, to show some kind of EMOTION. But no. Other than mild surprise and a twinge of fear he just took it in stride and went on his merry adventures. There were a few brief segments where he got angry, and those parts were excellent, because he was showing some strong emotion. Those parts were too brief and too few for me though. Another thing was that while Ms. Cooper did such an amazing and lovely job of describing scenes, and the countryside, and the weather even, I have no idea what most of the characters were supposed to look like. This is something that drives me crazy in books. The characters seemed two dimensional, nothing real about them at all. I think the biggest thing that I didn’t like about the book was the way that time seemed to flow. Will, as one of the Old Ones, was able to time travel a bit. So in the book it would feel like several days should have passed in the course of only one day. The entire book is set over, at the most, a week. And yet so much happens in that week, that it is simply not believable.

The thing with me, and liking a book, is mostly all about my ability to believe that somewhere, somehow, this story could have actually happened and that these people could exist. So since I found this book, while well and beautifully written and imagined, to be so entirely unbelievable I can’t give it a high rating or recommendation. I will say though, that I think if I had read it while I was still a child I would have loved it. Check it out for yourself though, you may well love it. And definitely read some of her other books because they are really great!

Rating: 3 1/2 Bookies!

And now, for the newest book from the hat, which I am about to draw right this moment……How to Wash a Cat by Rebecca M. Hale! I’m sooo excited! This book is the first in a new mystery series, and I loooove mysteries. I hope it will be really good! You know what that means boys and girls, that means someone else just won a free copy of this book as well.

How to Wash a Cat!

And now I will draw one name from the hat! Who will it be? *Drumroll*…….

JOEL! You will be the proud new owner of your very own FREE copy of How to Wash a Cat! I will send you a message to the email you subscribed with! How fun! Thanks for entering friend. Everyone else (all two of you others), keep entering to win. I’ll let you know when the next drawing will be and where to enter soon.

So, synopsis: The book is about a young boy named Liam, who one day goes wandering through his very industrial city. A city without trees, or flowers, or any sorts of growing things. As Liam is exploring he comes across some railroad tracks that have long been abandoned and notices a small patch of wild flowers growing there. The wild flowers are dying, and in obvious need of some TLC so Liam comes back the next day and tends to them. He comes back everyday after that and through his careful attention and ministrations his little garden begins to grow healthier and larger. Very soon his garden has gotten a mind of its own. Once again, no spoilers for the end! Read it and see what happens.

Review: One of the little girls that comes to story time every Wednesday has recently started growing some little potted plants. She was so into the book, she asked me “Could my garden do that?”. I’m going to go out on a limb and say she liked it. There was only one other child with us today, she was only about 1 1/2 so I wasn’t expecting too much, and she did spend most of the story running around. But whenever she stopped and I said “Hey look at this picture, isn’t that cool?” She grinned at the book and danced for a second. Did I mention my storytime kids are adorable? All in all I think both girls liked it. I also liked it, it might even make it onto my favorite picture books list.

Peter Brown wrote a fun, cute, and kind of believable story about the impact that one person, even a little boy, can make on the world. It says on his page that the book was actually inspired by a real abandoned railway in NYC. I really liked the story he told, I liked Liam as a character, and I also liked the moral to the story. One person can make a difference.

Synopsis: Mr. and Mrs. Crow live in a tree in Pearblossom. Mrs. Crow lays egg after egg, but everyday they disappear. The crows discover that there is a nasty old rattlesnake sneaking into their nest and eating their eggs. Mr. Crow decides to ask his wise friend the owl what he should do and the owl comes up with a plan to trick the snake. So one day Mrs. Crow doesn’t lay any eggs, but instead she and Mr. Crow make some fake eggs out of clay and paint them to look like Mrs. Crow’s eggs. When the snake sneaks up and eats what he thinks are the Crow’s eggs, he gets a nasty surprise and dies a very painful death. After the snake dies Mr. and Mrs. Crow string him up and use him as a clothes line, and they have many baby Crows.

Review: I think this is a really good book for older children, and for adults, but I would definitely not recommend it for younger children, I hope you can see why ^. Although it was written for a 5 year old. Actually, I found it rather funny myself. The Crows are just like an old married couple, and spend a lot of their time squabbling. I’m sure any parents, or even just adults in general, reading this would be able to appreciate the humor. On the downside, I’m not sure many children would. Besides that, the ending of the story is a tad bit on the morbid side. Once again, that’s fine for myself, other adults, and older children, but I’m not so sure about younger ones. Also, I liked the lyrical style it was written in which I’m sure people of all ages would appreciate. Sadly it seems like that style of children’s picture book writing is becoming a thing of the past.

As for the illustrations, you will notice two different covers shown above. This book was first published in 1967 with the original illustrations done by Barbara Cooney who was a noted children’s author and illustrator. We’ll first talk about her illustrations. I LOVE Barbara Cooney as an illustrationist. *Um Miss Rumphius anyone?* She did such great pen and ink illustrations, like the ones used in The Crows of Pearblossom. I think, given the story, pen and ink was a perfect medium to use to represent this tale. It was a kind of darkly humorous tale, and her somewhat gothic renderings of the characters was kind of creepily enchanting. Those illustrations coupled with the story and writing style still give me the shivers a bit, just because they are eerie! BTW this version was more of a chapter book. I liked this version of the book best, but that’s not to say that the new one doesn’t have great illustrations.

Sophie Blackall’s illustrations for this story were quite good, although not in a style that is generally to my taste. Her usual style is very much to my taste, but she did something different with this book. Usually the story’s she writes and illustrates (or just illustrates) have a whimsical tale and therefor she provides lovely and whimsical illustrations. In The Crows of Pearblossom, however, her illustration style differs from that of her other works. I read that she said she was trying to brighten up what was a somewhat dark story, and make it more inviting for children. Reinventing it for a new generation as it were. The crows are very odd and kind of disturbing looking, lacking Cooney’s somewhat goth glam and going for a more modern, quirky look. As always with her work, the illustrations are excellent and she has a keen eye for detail that I truly admire. She did a great job of reinventing an old tale and making it exciting and accessible to new audiences with her brightly colored backgrounds and flamboyant style in this book.

All in all, it’s a great book. But like I said earlier, maybe not for the littlest ones in the family. Why do I prefer Cooney’s illustrations? Probably in part because I’ve loved her work since I was a little girl. It’s timeless and classic to me, and evokes wonderful nostalgia. That doesn’t, by any means, mean that I don’t like the new version, because I definitely do. I don’t think you can go wrong with picking up either for a hearty laugh and a good, fun, slightly creepy read!

The book is a Caldecott award winner, and also an ALA Youth Media for 2011 award winner. The book tells the story of a zookeeper named Amos McGee who always does the same thing everyday, and he is always right on time. Amos has a lot of friends among the animals at the zoo, but one day he gets sick and doesn’t make it in. I won’t post spoilers for this one because I really think you should all buy a copy, if not for yourself then for a child you love.

This book was beautiful. The story, while not exactly a new or unpredictable one, was sweet and lovely and the illustrations were amazing. I’m not a big fan of the new types of illustrations that books have, those crude and not very talented pictures or the computer generated ones. This book had breathtaking pictures done in what looked like pencil and watercolor and they were beautiful and very well done. I found the coupling of the story and the illustrations very moving. Amos reminded me of my grandfather and when I was reading the book for myself before I read it to the children I cried a little bit because of this.

If you are looking for a good, wholesome book to read to your children or to give to a child you love, I think this is a good choice. The kids at my storytime loved it and so did I. I give it 5 bookies!

Yesterday I was surprised by a few people who came up to me and handed me scraps of paper for The Hat. Surprised and excited. I’m having so much fun with this new project and blog, and so I decided I wanted to do something fun, and from The Hat for my few readers.

The Hat wants to help build your library too! So, I’ll be doing a giveaway for you guys. When I do a drawing to decide which book I’m reading next, I will also be giving away a copy of that book to one of my lucky readers. How will I decide who wins each book? The Hat of course! To enter to win, all you have to do is leave me a comment suggesting a book for my hat and subscribe to CrookedPage. For readers in my area if you win we’ll set up a time and place for you to pick up your book (yes it will probably be my store) for readers that live in other areas I will ship it to you for free.

If you’d like to win a copy of this book, and if you’d like to see me continue to do future giveaways, leave a comment below with a suggestion for The Hat and click the subscribe button. I’ll wait 3 days to do the drawing to see who wins, and contact the winner to hammer out delivery details.

In future drawings, I will wait to announce the Book Of The Hat until I announce a winner for that book drawing, that way it will be as much a surprise to you as to me!

I’ll be doing these as fast as I can read them, so they may happen bi-weekly or two or three times a week. Get your name in there people! Who doesn’t want a free book?

I welcome you for a first glance at the contents of my hat, but first lets talk about a false start and the other books I will also be reading!

Ok so, my friend Deana and I had decided some time ago that we were going to make a short list of books, mostly classics, that we both kind of wanted to read but never had and thought we should read. So we started off with the Sherlock Holmes stories, which I haven’t finished yet (but will soon) and she so kindly reminded me that I needed to finish reading that before the official start of this project. Since no one argues with that gal, I’m currently finishing Sherlock Holmes with no complaints because it is excellent.

Next on my list with Deana is Madame Bovary, which I believe we should be starting within the next few days. But what does this mean for my other project? I’ll tell you. It means I will frequently be reading two books at once. Not really a problem for me, since I’ve been known to juggle far more than that at any given time.

Now I know you are panting, waiting in anticipation. What was the first book!?! Well, I drew it out last week actually. Call it my tester book, to try out my little reading experiment and see if I would like it before I committed to it in writing. The first book was……….

Synopsis: Three children are spending the summer at an old house in Cornwall. On a rainy day they come across an old manuscript and map hidden away and forgotten in the attic. The discovery of this article leads the children to adventure and danger as they race to find the treasure alluded to in the manuscript and keep it from falling into the hands of certain evil, which seems to lurk everywhere and in the unlikeliest places. They are aided in their quest by their eccentric uncle, who may not be at all what he appears. This book involves Arthurian myth and legend.

Rating: 3 out of 5 bookies

I was actually really excited when this was the first book I drew. I’ve wanted to read it for a long time, and for one reason or another just never got around to it. I’m really glad that I read it, even though it will not make it onto my favorite books list anytime soon. It was a very light story, and you can definitely tell that it was written for children, who I would recommend it for whole-heartedly, I only wish I had read it as a child because I’m sure I would have enjoyed it much more. The story was a bit predictable, and the characters were rather flat (the good characters anyway) Susan Cooper never described the main character’s appearance, and never said what age they were although one can deduce which child was the oldest and which the youngest from the dialogue. Probably my last problem was that the bad guys were a little on the fluffy bunny side. Voldemort would have slayed those guys. After he slayed the children about a million times. If you’re an Arthurian books fan, I recommend you read it just to say you did. If not I’d say you can pass on this one.

Next Time:
A review of The Sherlock Holmes stories, and I’ll announce the next book from the hat! Leave comments and recommendations for me!